Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs, Awards and Funds
As a postdoctoral fellow, funding is key to starting your fellowship. You can source funding from your supervisor's grant or research resources, government organizations, health organizations and fellowship programs. Below, you'll find a curated list of funding sources that may be of interest to you. We encourage you to consider applying for these opportunities.
Potential Sources of Funding for Postdoctoral Fellows
Arts & Science Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
This program supports postdoctoral fellows across a variety of disciplines.
Deadline: November 15
Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship
This program provides support for researchers across a variety of disciplines.
Deadline: November 19, 2025
Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program
The current Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships (results released in mid-February 2025) will be the final competitions for these programs.
Data Sciences Institute's Postdoctoral Fellowship
This fellowship supports multi/interdisciplinary training and collaborative research in data sciences that include faculty from the University of Toronto and partner institutes.
Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium - Convergence Postdoctoral Fellowships
These fellowships support post-doctoral trainees who are driving innovative infectious disease-focused projects that bridge two research disciplines.
Deadline: March 10, 2025 at 11:59 pm ET
Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium - Career Transition Awards
These awards support senior postdoctoral trainees, clinical trainees and/or research associates who are ready to lead an independent project.
Deadline: March 17, 2025 at 11:59 pm ET
Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium - Researcher Mobility Awards
These awards support high-calibre doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows to develop new skillsets and strengthen global linkages by providing financial support for them to undertake research training or complete collaborative field work outside of Toronto.
Deadline: May 31, 2025 at 11:59 pm ET
Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research
This fund provides support to postdoctoral fellows pursuing fundamental biomedical research to advance human health.
Deadline: January 31, 2025 at 12:00 pm ET
John Polanyi Prizes
These prizes are available in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, among other areas.
NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program (CREATE)
This program supports the training and mentoring of highly qualified students and postdoctoral fellows from Canada and abroad.
Deadline: May 1, 2025 (LOI)
Ontario Women's Health Scholar's Awards
These awards support the creation of new knowledge about women’s health and its translation into improved health for women, more effective health services and products for women, and a strengthened health care system.
Postdoctoral Fellows Professional Development Reimbursement Fund
This fund supports postdoctoral fellows engaging in additional professional development (PD) activities beyond those that may be requested or required by their Principal Investigator/Supervisor, including activities that postdoctoral fellows identify to enhance their professional growth. Please review the guidelines.
PRiME Fellowship Program
These fellowships support senior Ph.D (completed 4 or more years) students, and postdoctoral (with less than 4 years PDF training at the time of application), or clinical fellows.
Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP)
The Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is available to engage seven Indigenous and/or Black postdoctoral researchers annually. Commencing in 2025-2026, each award will provide $80,000 per year to the Faculty to support up to two years of a postdoctoral fellowship salary and employer costs. This level of funding exceeds the median postdoctoral salary at the University of Toronto and is in keeping with Canada’s most prestigious postdoctoral awards
Overview
The University of Toronto Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program provides funding to Graduate Faculties to increase opportunities for hiring postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups, specifically Indigenous and Black researchers. These fellowships will enable postdoctoral researchers to grow their scholarly profiles, undertake academic work at the University of Toronto, and strengthen the research environment at the University with diverse perspectives.
This funding is designed to help the University compete with peer institutions for top-tier candidates, and to support the University in meeting its institutional goal of fostering increased diversity and representation at all levels of teaching, learning and research.
Complete details, including the eligibility, selection criteria and application process can be found on the
Provost's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program website. Results of the competition will be made available and communicated to Faculty Research Offices in May.
Application
Applicants must be nominated by their Faculty (e.g., Faculty of Arts and Science) to SGS. Faculty Research Offices are asked to establish and communicate their internal application deadline and selection process before forwarding nominations to the School of Graduate Studies.
Potential nominees interested in the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program should contact the nominating supervisor. Supervisors wishing to support a candidate’s application must contact their graduate unit/department Chair and affiliated Faculty Research Office to inquire about the Faculty’s internal deadline and nomination process. Please refer to the Faculty Research Office contact information table below.
Faculty Research Offices are invited to submit a ranked nomination list and a nomination package for each nominee to the School of Graduate Studies at sgs.postdoc@utoronto.ca by the SGS deadline.
The nomination package for each nominee should be scanned as a single PDF file, containing all application materials in the order as listed below:
- A support letter from the graduate unit/department Chair, as per the selection criteria above (maximum two pages). Be sure to clearly state in the letter, with which underrepresented group (Indigenous and/or Black) the nominee identifies;
- A nomination letter from the faculty advisor/mentor, as per the selection criteria above;
- Statement of research intent from the nominee (maximum two pages);
- Nominee’s C.V. (no page restriction); and
- A short personal biography of the/written by the /written by the nominee (150-words limit), which may be used on the SGS Postdoctoral Fellows website or other communications, should they be successfully selected as a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow.
Note: A draft engagement letter is no longer required for the nomination package.
Contact
Complete details, including the eligibility, selection criteria and application process can be found on the
Provost's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program website.
For inquiries regarding registration with the Postdoctoral Office at SGS, please contact: Sarah Pickering, Postdoctoral Administrative Officer Postdoctoral Office, SGS at sgs.postdoc@utoronto.ca.
SGS Parental Grant Program
The SGS Parental Grant program, aims to provide financial support PhD and SJD students within the funded cohort by helping to offset the loss of their funding as a result of taking an approved parental leave of absence at the time of birth or adoption in order to provide full-time care during the child’s first year or the first year the child comes into care (see SGS Leave of Absence Policy). In 2025, this support has been extended to include all U of T Postdoc Trainees who receive funding through an external fellowship that does not offer a paid parental leave or benefits.
Transform HF Trainee Awards
These awards support University of Toronto graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are conducting research that focuses on new approaches and models of care to address heart failure and inequities in care.